The Red Cloak
by momoxtoshiro
Summary: A little red cloak can have many uses. Ruby and Weiss discover three. [Super short drabbles].
1. Chapter 1

**Just a very small series of very small ideas. I wrote another story today, but I have to save it for RWBY Tuesdays, so take this one tonight instead! It'll be 3 chapters and I'll just post the other two randomly on quiet days.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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><p>The Red Cloak<p>

Chapter 1

"Heya, Weiss!"

"Not now, Ruby."

The heiress was sitting on her bed in her uniform, intently focused on the book in her lap, hardly even blinking as she flipped another page. Ruby knelt on the ground, peeking over her partner's knee.

"But Weeeiiiss-!"

"_Not now_, Ruby." She snapped again.

"But you didn't even change into your pajamas yet!"

"Neither did you."

"Well... yeah, but that's because I've been waiting for you!"

"Don't, then. If I get up to change now, I'll lose my focus."

"But you've been "focusing" on that book for the past two hours!"

"Incorrect." Weiss flicked her annoyed gaze up to her leader. "I have been _trying_ to focus on this book for the past two hours."

"But you've gotta eat! You've gotta rest! It's almost midnight and you haven't even-!"

"Enough, Red."

To silence her partner, Weiss reached behind Ruby's head and pinched her hood, pulling it down over her face and effectively trapping the brunette against the comforters.

"H-Hey!" Came the muffled protests. "Weiss! Let me go!"

For whatever reason, the display was beyond amusing to Weiss and she chuckled.

"I don't know. This is quite entertaining."

"Weeeiiss!"

"Fine, fine."

The heiress relented, releasing her grip on Ruby's cloak. Her partner looked up at her with a disheveled head of hair and a priceless pout as she huffed.

"That wasn't very nice!"

"And now I've lost my focus altogether." Weiss sighed, closing her book. "You win, Red. I'll eat something and get to sleep." She slipped her legs off the side of the bed, smirking as she ruffled Ruby's hair for good measure. Her partner batted her hand away and grumbled. "It seems I've found a use for that red cloak of yours." Weiss mused, pulling up Ruby's hood over her face yet again.

"Weeeiiss!" Ruby's protests were drown out with another chuckle as Weiss got to her feet and gathered her clothes to change.

Ruby peeked out from underneath her hood and smiled a little before following after her.

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><p><strong>AN: The following chapters will be a little bit longer. Hope you enjoyed the quick read!**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I received some kinds words for chapter one, so thank you!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

After Weiss had discovered the trick of pulling Ruby's hood over her eyes, she used it more and more often, whenever she could manage, in fact.

If Ruby was disrupting class, if she burped without excusing herself, if she did anything even remotely cockamamy in Weiss's presence, the hood got flipped and tugged.

It became a norm for them very quickly, but Weiss made sure this trademark action belonged to her alone.

When Yang had jokingly performed the action on her sister, Weiss had stomped up and given her hand a light smack. "Only _I_ get to do that!" She had snapped, flipping Ruby's hood back to where it was supposed to be. Ruby had breathlessly began to thank the heiress before she pulled the hood back down herself, mumbling about how Yang did it all wrong.

Despite how it always left Ruby with ruffled hair and a pout, she rather enjoyed the new punishment act Weiss had discovered for her; it was painless - rather soft even - and involved no yelling.

The only downside was that Ruby had to hear rather than see Weiss's chuckle every time.

But reprimanding Ruby for her childish acts was not the only useful method for the red cloak, and Ruby discovered the second usage a few nights later.

She had entered the room having finished a warm shower, finding Weiss lying in bed beneath her covers, turned on her side with her face buried into her pillow.

Assuming she was asleep, Ruby crept quietly toward her own bed, but noticed Blake waving her over. Yang had invited herself into the Faunus girl's bed – again – and was presently keeping her warm on the chilly evening.

"I think Weiss is cold." Blake murmured. "In fact... it's painfully obvious..."

Yang sat up to address Ruby in a mumble. "I was thinking we could throw my blankets on her, since I'm sleeping down here tonight... but then she'd probably throw a hissy fit if she knew that we knew, ya know?"

"I... think so?" Either way, Ruby understood that she needed to figure out a subtle way to keep her partner warm. She nodded her thanks to her other two teammates before deciding what she needed to do.

She dashed over to where her uniform hung on the wall and removed her cloak, quickly putting it in place around her shoulders. She then tip-toed over to the bed beneath hers and leaned over her partner.

Sensing her looming presence, Weiss slowly opened one eye, already aware that she was defeated.

Ruby poked her cheek. "Weeeiss? Are you co-"

"No, Ruby. Now go to sleep."

"O-kaaay..."

"_In your own bed._"

"Oh, c'mon Weiss!" Ruby stopped her motion of slipping under the covers midway. "You're shivering!"

"I am not."

"You are!"

"Ruby, go to your bed."

"Okay, fine." She placed a hand on Weiss's shoulder and rolled her over onto her back, forcing the heiress to look up at her as Ruby pulled her very best pathetic puppy face. "What if I told you _I_ was really cold?"

"I'd tell you to _go to your own bed_."

"What if it's broken?"

"Ruby-"

"Okay, okay fine. But I really _am_ cold." She gave a pitiable shudder for emphasis, pulling her cloak over her arms.

"...Is letting you stay here the only non-violent way to shut you up?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Get under." Weiss begrudgingly lifted the blankets, but instantly flipped back over to show Ruby her back. "But Ruby, I swear if you touch me like your sister does to Blake, so help me I'll-"

"Hey, hey I wouldn't do anything like that!" Ruby landed on her side facing Weiss's back, causing the mattress to bounce several times as the heiress let out a long breath through her nose.

"Just... go to sleep." She growled. "And _don't _talk." She added.

"Aye aye."

When they had all settled, Blake turned off the bedside lamp as "goodnights" were murmured amongst them.

Weiss closed her eyes, fighting to suppress another shiver in hopes to dissuade Ruby from commenting. But even worse, the heiress sneezed instead, which only served to unlock the shivers all over again. She ducked her face into her pillow, praying Ruby had already fallen asleep.

But a moment later, Weiss felt warm fingers brush over her arm.

"Ruby-" Weiss muttered, trying to fend her off.

But she stopped herself when she felt a soft material being draped over her body. Ruby's cloak was warm and the scent of roses wreathed around Weiss as she felt the younger girl slide in a bit closer to her. The heiress sighed - and she _may_ have shifted slightly closer to her partner in return.

"Ruby, thank you, but you don't have to-" She cut off sharply when she felt a finger trace over her back, causing her to shiver again. "W-What do you think you're-?"

But as Weiss tried to roll over to confront her partner, Ruby placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. Miffed, Weiss stayed where she was, biting back her remarks as she felt Ruby's finger dance over her back.

When she relaxed for a second, the heiress realized Ruby was tracing letters between her shoulder blades, and so she did her best to focus and interpret them properly. After a few moments, she gathered the majority of the letters to form a sentence:

_You told me not to talk, so goodnight, Weiss. _

The heiress's lips curved slightly upward.

"You dunce..."

She muttered this into her pillow before curling in on herself and closing her eyes, making no move to stop Ruby as she snuggled closer beneath her cloak.

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><p><strong>AN: I forgot what I wrote for this chapter until I went to edit it ahaha. Final chapter next week is a tad bit angsty. Just a tad.**

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Final chapter! Thank you for the support! (Remember, kinda-sad chapter).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.**

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

It was a few weeks later when Weiss had received a call during lunchtime.

She had excused herself from the table to take it as her teammates continued to eat, but Ruby's gaze followed her out.

She tensed when she saw Weiss freeze in her steps before even reaching the doors. Her back was to Ruby, but even from this distance, she could pick up on the signs of her partner's discomfort; the way her fingers clutched at her skirt, the way her feet shifted as though she wanted to run but was trapped in place...

Ruby frantically looked toward her teammates. Yang's lavender eyes were ridden with concern, and she looked as though she was about to jump over the table and run to Weiss. Blake's ears were flicking uncomfortably, and when Ruby met her gaze she could tell things sounded as bad as they looked.

Without sparing another second, Ruby shot from her seat and raced to Weiss's side in the middle of the cafeteria just as the heiress dropped her scroll, brought her hands to her face, and began to weep. Ruby caught her before she could collapse, crying out panicked phrases as Weiss broke down in front of the entire school.

Ruby was painfully aware of the stares they were receiving, and she acted quickly as not to draw any more attention their way. Swiftly removing her cloak from around her blazer's collar, Ruby draped it over Weiss's trembling shoulders, drawing the hood up over her head to conceal her face.

The younger girl said nothing more as she supported her partner's weight, slowly walking her out of the cafeteria and away from prying eyes.

The two girls limped back to their dorm room as Weiss continued to leave tiny drops of water on the floors behind her.

Ruby opened the door and brought Weiss to her bed, sitting down on the edge beside her, rubbing her hand over her back and offering feeble words of comfort.

It was after nearly ten minutes of this before Weiss's tears finally slowed to a stop, and she slumped sideways onto Ruby's shoulder, the jerking hiccups that previously assaulted her body now traded for calmer breaths. Ruby sighed helplessly as she peeked beneath the red hood to glimpse her partner's tearstained face.

She held Weiss by her waist with one hand and reached her free fingers to brush over the heiress's bangs, then lightly down her cheeks to erase the salty trails.

Ruby did not find out what had happened, but she could assume Weiss had received bad news or been harshly reprimanded for something beyond her control. The brunette was just glad she was resting now.

She laid Weiss down on her bed, un-ruffling the cloak to better drape it over the heiress's form, tucking it underneath her. Ruby looked her over one last time before getting to her feet, crossing the room to sit at the desk where she pulled out a book, and began to read quietly.

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><p>Ruby made sure to message Yang and Blake that Weiss was alright and in her care; she and her partner had skipped the last few classes of the day, and she did not want her other two teammates to worry.<p>

Ruby busied herself with reading for a while, but after half an hour decided to change her area of focus; whenever she felt frustrated, she deemed it best to channel those feelings onto assignments. She presently glared down at the mathematics before her, letting the ridiculous numbers be an excuse to pull at her hair, rather than her concerns for her partner.

The room was silent aside from Weiss's breathing, which occasionally hitched with a sniffle. Ruby kept peering over her shoulder to check on her, attempting to peek beneath the hood to make sure she was not crying again.

Whenever Ruby looked her way, Weiss instantly closed her eyes; she had actually woken up a while ago as the mortifying memories of her unbecoming display in front of the student body came flooding back to her. She shivered, biting back a whimper as she remembered the call she had received minutes before that, her father's enraged shouting about one thing or another...

Weiss curled herself tighter, not wanting to think about it, and she buried her face into soft material, softer than her pillow...

When she blinked her eyes open again, Weiss realized it was not the red of her blankets that she saw, but the much richer crimson of Ruby's cloak. Even though Ruby was across the room from her, her presence still wreathed around Weiss, serving to quell her thoughts.

She laid there on her side a little longer than was likely necessary, breathing in the unmistakable scent of roses.

At last, Weiss had managed to repress the troubling thoughts and pushed herself up, the hood falling down to her shoulders. She held the ends of the cloak together before her chest as she slipped her legs off the bed and slowly made her way over to Ruby.

Ruby heard her stir and quickly whipped around to face her, only to find her standing a few feet away, wearing an appreciative smile. "Weiss! Are you-?"

"You dunce." She huffed, lifting one side of the cape behind her. "This is important to you, isn't it? Don't just go throwing it onto whomever's head you please." Weiss chided her as she pulled out the chair next to Ruby's and sat down.

The younger girl opened her mouth to ask again how Weiss was feeling, but decided against it at the last second; her smile said enough. Ruby exchanged her words.

"Well, _you're_ important to me, too!" She stated matter-of-factly, scooting her chair closer to Weiss's.

The heiress blinked in surprise before her smile returned. "Thank you."

She held Ruby's gaze a moment longer, silently conveying to her that she was going to be alright. Ruby looked back sternly for a moment before she finally gave a small nod.

"Yang and Blake are taking notes for us." Ruby informed her. Weiss nodded in approval.

"Good. Now what is it you're working on?"

"Math."

"I see... Oh, this is all wrong..."

"Uggghh..."

Weiss chuckled as she slid in closer to her.

Ruby offered a small grin as Weiss began to show her how to complete the problem, but not before slipping half the cloak over her shoulders as well.

Ruby scooted in closer, pressing her shoulder against Weiss's and humming contentedly, earning a playfully-scolding flick to the forehead in return.

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><p><strong>AN: Well, I hope you had fun these past three weeks. There's really no rhyme or reason to these chapters, just little ideas I wanted to share. Thank you for reading!**

**Please review!**


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